Scripps hospital in Encinitas gets $10 million donation

The Leichtag Family Foundation of Carlsbad has donated $10 million to Scripps Memorial Hospital-Encinitas to help pay for a new critical-care building, which is the first phase of a previously announced $200 million expansion project, Scripps Health announced yesterday.

Overall, Scripps has raised $17.5 million from donors for the initial project, which will double emergency-room capacity. Later phases will add a parking structure, power plant and medical office building.

The Leichtag foundation was created by Lee and Andre “Toni” Leichtag after the North County couple sold their pharmaceutical company. Lee Leichtag died in 2007, and Toni Leichtag died a month ago.

The foundation has made numerous contributions to Scripps Encinitas since 1979.

The San Diego company, which plans to file for approval of the drug by the end of the year, said the 35 participants rated the drug similarly to a placebo on a “drug liking” scale. Two controlled substances used for comparison in the study received positive scores.

Arena said drug candidates that act through mechanisms in the brain are generally required to go through an evaluation for abuse potential.

THOMAS KUPPER

San Diegan to lead Sprint’s 4G wireless network rollout

Sprint Nextel has named San Diego resident Matt Carter as new head of the company’s next-generation cellular network development. Carter, who worked for Leap Wireless before joining Sprint in 2006, was leading Sprint’s Boost Mobile prepaid business, based in Irvine. Boost shook up the prepaid industry this year by offering a comprehensive voice and data plan for $50 a month.

In his new job, Carter, 48, will oversee Sprint’s efforts to roll out a 4G wireless network. The company uses WiMAX technology for its next-generation network, which provides faster data rates to mobile devices.

Three former investment bankers with boutique San Diego firm RA Capital Advisors have left to start their own investment banking company. Todd Wilson, Kurk Wickham and Joel Weinstein have formed W Capital. It will focus on mergers and acquisitions, capital-raising and other investment banking services for mid-sized companies.

W Capital aims to help companies in mergers with a deal size of $20 million to $300 million. For capital-raising, it will focus on deals in the $10 million to

$50 million range, Wilson said.

W Capital has experience in aerospace and defense, business services, clean technology and energy, consumer products, health care, manufacturing, transportation, software and other technology industries. Wilson said the split from RA Capital Advisors was amicable. RA Capital was once associated with Relational Group, an activist investment fund based in San Diego.

MIKE FREEMAN

NCR Corp. buys DVD-rental kiosk operator DVDPlay

NCR Corp. said it has acquired DVD-rental kiosk operator DVDPlay with plans to convert the company’s kiosks to NCR’s Blockbuster Express brand.

The deal adds about 1,300 kiosks to NCR’s network, including kiosks that DVDPlay had operated in Vons stores. Altogether, NCR expects to have about 3,800 kiosks by the end of the year.

The company said it will start converting DVDPlay kiosks to Blockbuster Express at the beginning of 2010.